Did He Mention the Pension?

A previous post noted that President Yudof would be meeting with the governor today. The video below is his statement, apparently made before the visit. Members of the UC community would not disagree with anything he said.

Reports of the subsequent visit to the governor suggest that what occurred with Brown was more the governor looking for support in his efforts to get his tax program before the voters, one way or another, than the university making its needs known. (See http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/04/gov-brown-talks-tax-extensions.html.)

Not clear is whether UC (UCOP) had a specific agenda for the governor’s consideration. As noted in prior posts, UC not only has a budget cut to deal with in 2011-12 but also the ongoing, long-term costs of ramping up pension contributions. (CSU and the community colleges are part of CalPERS and so do not face that challenge.) It has also been noted that the state – despite its evident immediate cash shortage – could aid UC by putting an IOU (payable in the future) into the pension fund. In fact, the state did just that during earlier cash shortages in 1984 and 1990. Why not now?

Here is the video from the Sacramento Bee. The text that goes with it is at http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/04/higher-education-leaders-lobby.html.)